Sunday June 15th, 2008 @ 11:22 PM

I have wanted my Navel pierced for a while, but my parents will not let me. I went out and bought a 14g hollow needle and a ring to fit. I want to do the piercing myself or with the help of friends, but I was told I need a clamp or the bleeding would be really bad. Could I possibly get a step-by-step walk through of how to properly do it yourself? (I will not go to a parlor, so I don’t want any of that.) Thank you.

I can’t speak for the other ASKBME volunteers, but I’ll say you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who calls themselves professional who’s willing to do a step by step walk through on a piercing, particularly in a public forum on someone who refuses to go to a professional.

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33 Responses to “Piercing Yourself”

..and just to add the point that your parents are correct in deciding you’re not mature enough to get pierced, seeing as you’re chucking a big tanty and doing a dodgy DIY piercing behind their backs. Long story short, if you have to ask the internet how to do it, you shouldn’t be doing this, full stop.

I’m with both of thee above. I had a friend who wanted to pierce his own lobe and my advice to him was to go to a professional. My view is that the average person is not properly trained to perform a piercing and could end up damaging something.

IT IS NEVER NEVER A GOOD IDEA TO LET FRIENDS OR YOURSELF INSERT A PIERCING…
YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT LONG TERM PROBLEMS….INFECTION REJECTION
IT COMING OUT CROOKED… BEING TO DEEP OR NOT DEEP ENOUGH WHICH WILL ALLOW YOUR BODY TO REFECT….

YOUR BEST BET HUN IS JUST WAIT…

HAVING A HEALTHY PIERCING LATER
OPPOSED TO ONE THAT IS HIGHLY LIKELY TO CAUSE PROBLEMS NOW..

IS NOT WORTH IT

I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR ALONG TIME
AND I HAVE HAD TO MANY COME IN MY SHOP BECAUSE OF PROBLEMS WITH THE PIERCING THEY DID ON THEMSELVES OR LET FRIENDS DO .. THEY WALK IN WITH INFECTIONS ABCESS UN NECESSARY TRAUMA CAUSED TO THE TISSUE….AND ITS REALLY A BITCH…!!!!!!

I KNOW TO SOME PEOPLE IT MIGHT SEEM EASY TO JUST SHOVE A NEEDLE THROUGH YOUR SKIN
BUT ITS NOT ….THERE ARE MANY MANY OTHER AREAS THAT NEED TO BE COVERED AND PERFECTED WHEN YOU PERFORM A PIERCING… FOR YOU TO HAVE ONE THAT WILL BE HEALTHY AND WITH YOU AS LONG AS YOU PREFER

Honey, please, do not peirce your naval yourself. Belly peircings are gorgeous - I’m actually going in to get mine done hopefully sometime this week - but if your parents don’t want you to get it right now, respect them.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where my mom was pretty chill about peircings and tatts; I got my first “big” piericng (my nose) when I was thirteen, with her permission. I’ve done self-peircings before, and they were all right for a while (mind you, this was in my lobe, NOT my naval, which is a much more complicated peircing to do!!) until I did one over the summer that got severely infected only a few days after it was done. My whole ear swelled up and the infection spread to my face. I have a huge tolerance for pain, but when I cleaned it out it about made me cry. My boyfriend finally insisted that I go to the doctor because I had gotten really sick and I found out I had gotten blood poisoning.

It took a while for my face/ear to clear up, and I was on medicine for a long time. Seriously, hun, I absolutely love peircings, but don’t try to be cool and do your naval yourself. Chances are, you’ll mess it up, it’ll look like crap, most likely get infected, and then your rents are gonna yell at you when they find out you did it anyway.

I didn’t have any huge problems…except it didn’t work out. Too shallow, not straight, painful, migrated, hard to sleep on because it wouldn’t heal, impossible to keep a secret from parents, I don’t care who you are. And guess what? I have nice scar tissue where my once pretty navel is!!

again, speaking from experience, DON’T DO IT.

I don’t know how old you are, maybe thats why you won’t go to a parlor, but it is SO worth it to wait til you are old enough and have a professional do it. Actually, that is how I celebrated my 18th birthday, but that is another story entirely.

Well if you are determined to do it, then buy a clamp, and just do it! Either it’ll work out or it won’t. Sterilize your equipment, and do your best. I will say, from someone who pierced herself a lot growing up- that placement is realy tricky, and to be able successfully complete a piercing yourself, you need to be able to not stop when you feel pain, most self piercings are more traumatic, but it was a spiritual thing for me, and I’m glad I had those experiences. So it all depends on what you are going for here, If you want a fairly painful, spiritual but not necessarily well done piercing ten go for it.

But don’t make the mistake that piercing is nothing more than running a needle through your skin, it is NOT so simple as that.

Don’t do it. Just wait it out. I learned the hard way. I did my navel myself many years ago and It was rejected and left an ugly scar tissue.
Its probably the stupidest thing to do, I have done ALL of my 22 piercings myself but I’m a risk taker-dont-care-what-happens type of person. Gone through infections and rejected piercings. Its a lot easier to get them done professionally. You won’t have to go through the pain and puss from self done piercings. And asking about it online is horrible, Very low and immature.

In any case, can you imagine asking a professional for a free “step-by-step walkthrough” in any other field? It’s like going to a computer shop and asking them, “Hi, can you tell me how to fix my computer? But I’m not going to give you any money.”

It’s quote normal to do that in appropriate forums, Xenobiologista. There’s a difference betwqeen a shop and a forum. That here, is a forum, not a shop.

And indeed most times you get answers.
Indeed the second, most times you could get the answers by properly using the http://www.
And indeed the third, you could get all the answers for the question “how to pierce yourself safely” on the www, or more precice even here on BME.

So… at the one side it is abso0lutely ridiculous how the prople react here about self piercings, which are indeed something normal to do. And somethin safe if done right.#

But it shows off quite some kind of neglection to go simply somewhere and ask, instead of looking out for information, reading, learning for himself, and maybe, then, quite educated, ask some specific questions. Indeed, somebody who is not ablo to find… lets say 95% of the important (AND CORRECT) information by himself… should betterr not pierce himself. In such a case, there is a basic lack of understanding, makind self-piercing a bad choice.

I’ve done ALL my piercings myself, excluding my cheek / ‘dimple’ piercing and my naval. Those two were the first ones I’d ever gotten done professionally, and they both rejected/didn’t work out.

Although I do believe in piercing yourself if you know what you’re doing,…the naval isn’t something to fuck around with, it doesn’t compare to the lips or nose, etc… It’s much more difficult and the skin around it is ten times thicker. Not even like cartilage…

yes, you can go to a well experienced professional and get an accurate job, but nothing is stopping a person from attaining the information and doing just as good. this is after all the information age, people are going to diy whether a professional is available or not.

I’d argue that they’re going to do it “just as good”- but perhaps I’m wrong and the modification world is just getting more used to mediocrity. That someone is going to “just do it anyway”is their issue, not mine.

I am an apprentice piercer and I think that doing piercings on your self is fine. I did my foirst piercing when I was 16 and have doing it ever since. Including my own belly button and nothing went wrong and nothing was wrong. So if you want to do it then do it.

If you’re asking how to pierce yourself you probably shouldn’t be doing it. i have gotten several professionally done piercings and have observed many others getting done, why because one i believe in doing what’s best for your body and two i wanted to learn. i have done a few piercings on myself they have all worked out but not all people are capable of it and no i am not screaming i am qualified but i do enjoy learning.

Okay just wait for it. Trust me it’ll be worth it.
Piercings your ear yourself is one things after all I do it, but hips is so much diffrent. See I want my hips and my belly button done, but you dont see my going to do it myself. You dont have the proper materials, nor are you a professional.

yeh i did the samething. I did my own vch,nipples belly button and tongue, but i didnt do them fast i pierced slow so i could see where it was going.Its not that complicated doing it,the after care is the annoying part.

I pierced my own nose and pierced my ears (several times) when I was younger, (nose when I was 13 and ears 12-20) none of them got infected and never had any problems with the after care. My view is, it’s completely up to you, as long as you’re aware of the risks involved.

As far as piercing yourself, just ask what is the absolute worst thing that could happen. Infection, massive scarring, ect… if you are fine with living with that, then go for it. I could live without an earlobe just fine, but went to a professional for my hch. Also anything that I want perfectly straight or lined up properly you want someone with knowledge do it.

Countless times I see people piercing themselves. Why? To save a buck? What happened to piece of mind? Knowing that the person doing your piercing is a trained professional, that is the greatest piece of mind. How many times have I seen people come in with infections, misplaced piercings and so forth? Only because they had wanted to save money. All it takes is a little research and some questions asked. We have autoclaves to sterelize our equipment. And all needles are pre sterelized and disposed of in a biohazardous sharps container. We are trained in bloodborne pathogens and cross contamination. Are you? What happens if you pierce yourself in your bathroom/bedroom or livingroom,etc. And it is not cleaned properly? Animal hair, feces and such is prevelent? What if you don’t know? Are you really that immature to risk it? This is your body!!! AApparently my advise is too not risk it, and listen to your parents!

Sweety. I’ve done all my piercings besides my tongue. i have 13 piercings.
If you honestly really want it done i suggest getting a clamp if you do not already have one. If you don’t you will bleed and have to Clean it much more frequently if you still need a step by step i will be happy to give you one. I’m just letting you know you’ll have to take care of it twice as much than waiting and getting it professionally done.

Hey i got my belly peirced unprofessionally by my friend in a school bathroom.. We had the correct needle and all but no clamp, ITS COMPLETELY HEALED AND JUST FINE. I had no issues whatsoever, i soaked it in hydrogen proxide everyday for about two minutes to clean, then put a little lotion on the skin around so it did t dry out, its fine hun just be careful

I pierced my lower right cartilage two years ago and never had any sort of complications using a stud from an earlier ear piercing. I admit it definitely wasn’t a good idea and just because I got lucky doesn’t mean you will either. Professionals are trained for a REASON. I actually just had my industrial done this morning after waiting a month so a professional could do it.